


Imperial Boredom

by Kunstpause



Series: Ambitions [2]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 22:00:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7591945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kunstpause/pseuds/Kunstpause
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not for the first time since Darth Nox had joined their illustrious group of dark council members Darth Marr fought against the inexplicable urge to either simply leave, protocol be damned, or hit his head against the nearest wall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Imperial Boredom

Shiwon had spent the last 45 minutes admiring her nails and her own hair in a very obviously mocking way. She had long learned to completely ignore the evil looks Darth Ravage was shooting her all through his speech and report about the workings of his sphere. She was listening to every word but made sure she projected the most bored look she could manage. There was little else to do for her during Dark Council meetings than to either fall asleep, which was rather frowned upon, or to make her own amusement, which mostly consisted of trying to push her fellow council members' buttons until someone exploded. Most of the time this meant trying to thoroughly piss of Darth Ravage who looked like he was continuously only seconds away from strangling her.

The other council members quickly accustomed to her presence, but Ravage didn’t even try to mask his dislike of her. Not that they knew each other very well, but the fact alone that she replaced Darth Thanaton and that Shiwon sat on the council despite coming from slavery was enough to fuel his anger on the best days. On the worst she managed to throw oil into the fire. 

So far he had been remarkably self restrained, his anger almost bleeding from his eyes but despite how obviously she provoked him he had refused to make a spectacle in front of the other council members. So far. 

Ravage stumbled over a sentence for a second when she started to hum a song she got into her head while last being on Balmorra. She heard one of the other council members audibly gasp. Darth Ravage, with being responsible for the Sphere of Expansion and Diplomacy was not amused to be reminded of his tactical errors that let the Empire to have to retreat from their occupation of Balmorra not long ago. And in front of everyone. When she started humming the chorus again he snapped.

“Darth Nox, do you have something to add to my report or are you simply trying to be even more out of line than usual?” He had forced his voice to be calm but there was enough anger getting through.

Shiwon smiled saccharine sweet at him. “Oh no, please Ravage, continue. I would never dream of depriving the council of your meticulous tales of failure for even a second.” She continued inspecting her nails and kept humming softly. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him seethe.

With a malicious snarl he continued his report. “As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted...”

“Oh please,” Shiwon scoffed, “everyone in the room was silently cheering for either this or a global catastrophe just to make you shut up.” Next to her she could feel Darth Zhorrid lean forward with a spark in her eyes. The other woman had obviously been just as bored as she was and seemed to finally be interested in the happenings around her.

Ravage spluttered at her blatant interruption. “How dare you!” He hissed. “I am very well aware that they probably didn’t whip any manners into you down in the slave pits but this is too far, even from a low life like you.” 

Shiwon leaned back into her seat with a wide grin. Namecalling? Maybe this meeting wasn’t a total waste of her time after all. Darth Vowrawn looked at them in an impassioned way but Shiwon could swear she saw his eyes twinkle. She also strongly suspected that Darth Marr was fighting very hard at the moment to not sigh exasperatedly.

“You are awfully concerned with what is taught down there in the slave pits, Ravage. You want to know the most important thing we learned?” She put as much condescension in her voice as possible and looked around the room. She had the attention of everyone now and her face became stern.

“Do tell.” Came his dry reply.

“We learned not to fuck the objectives given to us up.” Her eyes narrowed at him. “You may think it is just personal dislike on my part that makes me loathe you, but that is actually untrue.” She saw Ravage was almost ready to burst. “I actually couldn’t care less about your quite frankly rather bland personality,” she continued, “it is your ongoing failure to do your job that annoys me.” She went back to a sweet smile again. She could hear a soft but very amused “Oh my!” from Zhorrid next to her. 

For a moment it was almost eerily quiet in the council chambers before it was Zhorrid who broke the silence. “Ravage,” she said politely, “given that we have listened to you talking about all the strategically important places we have lost in the past month for almost an hour now, I have to say Darth Nox has a point.” 

If her words were supposed to have a calming effect they managed to do the opposite. “This is outrageous, “ Ravage nearly yelled. “Marr! Are you going to just let this slide?” He accused the leader of the council. Wearing full body armour and a mask, there was no way to discern Darth Marr’s facial expression but Shiwon had spent enough time with him during their alliance talks that she could read his body langue pretty well. Right now he seemed to fight an internal battle between his own amusement, exasperation and some relief that for once both Shiwon and Zhorrid were arguing with someone else and not with him. Right when he was going to say something Vowrawn leaned forward.

“It is a valid concern Ravage, I suggest you answer what you are asked.” If anyone was watching Vowrawn very closely they could have seen the hint of a wink in Shiwon’s direction. But at this point everyone was too distracted by a yelling Ravage who seemed to not even stop for breathing while yelling at Shiwon, trying to give her a piece of his mind. Shiwon couldn’t really help herself and yelled back and soon even the guards outside the council chamber got an earful of their shouting match.

Not for the first time since Darth Nox had joined their illustrious group of dark council members Darth Marr fought against the inexplicable urge to either simply leave, protocol be damned, or hit his head against the nearest wall. With her power and their goals aligning and them actually getting along most of the time she was his best bet of holding the Empire together. But she also was his primary cause of headaches and irritation nowadays. He had to admit though, council meetings were definitely more lively than they had been in the past forty years at least. Never the less, he felt he couldn’t let this get out of hand any more than it already did. He was just about to get up and call them off each other when Vowrawn stopped him. The other Sith silently shook his head at him.

“I swear Marr, if you stop them now I will personally make you sit through the entire annual report of the logistics division and make sure they report on every single footnote!” 

Darth Vowrawn may very well be the calmest and most reasonable of the current council members, but he had a vicious streak that could rival the best of them. 

“Entertainment like this doesn’t come often, relax, sit back, enjoy that it’s not about you and maybe place a bet with me on the outcome.” Vowrawn went on.

Marr shook his head. “You are aware that this is an official government meeting I assume. We need to work together, not do whatever this is.”

Vowrawn looked knowingly at him with a grin. “Yeah, but it’s Ravage, you really don’t like working with him.” 

Marr had to concede that the other actually had a point when noticed a soft noise coming from a small device in Vowrawn’s hand. “Are you RECORDING this?” He asked incredulously. 

“Am I? What a crazy and random coincidence!” Vowrawn stated in mock outrage before he winked again. He glanced at the small holo camera. “For a rainy day.” 

Marr wasn’t sure he’d ever completely understand Vowrawn’s sense of humour and entertainment but he could probably refrain from interfering for another 20 minutes or so. 

It was this precise moment when Darth Zhorid leaned over from the other side. “So, about that betting pool - 500 credits say Nox is kicking Ravage’s ass.”


End file.
